What Is design? by Bill Moddridge

In Bill Moddridges lecture he speaks about what design is. He not only speaks about industrial design but he also talks about what design is in all disciplines. He speaks about the design of not only tangible products such as products, clothing, interiors and houses but also the design of processes such as services and applications. He points out that without bad design we are not able to recognize good design. As designers we must think of not only making a product look good but we also need to have the end user in mind and think of what their needs are.  We must analyse the process of the intended use and test it and experiment on how to improve it. For example, with the i-mode service of buying a drink using your mobile phone. When tested the user was confused and also had to wait over 30 minutes to receive their drink.

I really liked the point he made about the importance of observation, experimentation and prototyping. To design for other people is to observe their daily lives to further learn what they need. If you are to ask someone, “what do you need?” they probably could not tell exactly what they need but if you are to study them you can learn more. For example, the customers of the Bank of America wanted to save more money. They were probably asked “what do you need?” and the answer was most likely money. So the bank started an initiative called keep the change where the bank saved up all the roundings of change into an account. This was good design because the needs were met and all parties were happy.

The other point I took away from the blog was the importance of working with other design disciplines. The IDEO company now has architects, industrial designers, interior designers and even engineers. This helps to understand things we don’t understand in our own fields. If you are to work with an engineer, they will not think like a designer so they will work with a designer to improve the process or the aesthetics of the product.

I learned a lot from having watched this video and will take it all in through my design process in the future.

UPCYCLING: lamps

I drew inspiration for this design from my love of all things feminine and from my Asian background. The shape of the lamp is reminiscent of the female figure in a ball gown with its curvy silhouette and cinched in middle. The scalloped edges soften the hard edge and creating a more flower-like effect following the theme of the ball gown.

I decided to play with the polypropelene’s flexibility. While I was travelling around Asia, I came across villagers who would use banana leaves to create their wares and found it quite interesting. I also thought that the material we were given could act very similar to the leaves they were using and create nice curves from it. I researched different weaving techniques, from basket weaving to fabric weaves such as twill weave and sateen, but found that the plain weave worked best to gain the results I was after. The weaving pattern creates a diffused light pattern when a soft yellow bulb is used.

The packaging for this product is minimal and doesn’t take up much area when being transported. It is the size of half a mailing tube and can easily be assembled, disassembled and re-packed if necessary. The actual lamp design yields a minimum of 6 lamps per sheet (1800mm x 1500mm), and because it is made up of mostly straight edges the shapes tessellate and waste is kept to a minimum. 

The lamp is easy to assemble with a comprehensive instruction manual.

This is the cutting layout for the lamp design. As you can see, there is minimal waste and yields approximately six lamps per sheet of 1800mm x 1500mm.